Candid Wars
by Gadje
Summary: The Animorphs play with a Polaroid (with someR/T and mild #49 spoilers)


MaroonGoat  
  
THE CANDID WAR  
  
  
Rachel grinned as she tacked a photograph to the wall of the make-shift "headquarters" in the Hork-Bajir camp. It was a small cabin with a tiny desk, cooler, a couple of painfully made maps, and absolutely nothing on the splintering wood walls. So she thought she'd make it more...homely. No harm in that, right? She smiled to herself and slipped out to go scouting with Tobias.  
  
*  
  
Marco, readying himself for a trip around the valley with Ax to take pictures of the terrain for map-making and protection purposes, made his way to the tiny cabin to grab an expensive Polaroid camera and a handful of film rolls. After mixing morphs to create "adults" for the camp's refugees, Cassie and Jake had taken the parent's credit cards and drained them at camping supplies stores, groceries, pharmacies, sewing shops, army surplus stores, bookstores, and other such places. All in one day. Thousands and thousands of dollars were spent. Computer goods, tents, blankets, matches, cameras and film, hunting supplies, reams of paper. And many maxed-out credit cards. A werehouse was built to store it all.  
Marco put the camera strap around his neck and made for the door when a certain picture on the wall caught his eye. It was of himself playing My Little Ponies with Rachel's younger sisters. A thought-bubble was drawn in with a sharpie that read, "I wonder if I can acquire this thing...?" Oh, the humility! Well, he wouldn't stand for this, no sir! It was payback time...  
  
*   
  
After nearly 2wo hours of scouting, thermals, and idle chatting, Rachel and Tobias landed in a rare spot of quiet in the Hork-Bajir valley...home, now. They began their morphs and were soon standing on long human legs and seeing with dulled human vision, and only their great wings remained, rising magesticly from broad human shoulders; chocolate wings not yet melted in the sun. Tobias started to let his recede, but Rachel stopped him.  
"No, leave them for just a minute..." And she drew herself against him.   
"It's a Kodak moment," he grinned, and sank his lips onto hers.  
  
*  
  
"Oh! What a Kodak moment this is!" Marco thought as he snapped two pictures of Rachel and Tobias, one where they stood innocently next to each other as they were about to finish morphing, and the next the were embraced with beautiful eagle and hawk wings not yet morphed. He laughed to himself, almost thinking that this was too cruel. But really, who would care? Not many people went in the small cabin anyway besides the original Aimorphs, Ax, and Toby. It didn't matter.  
"Marco, is this not something you should be photographing?"  
"It's revenge, Ax, and anyway, they'll look back on it and laugh...I hope."  
  
*  
  
"So THAT'S how it's going to be, is it? Oh, yes, this IS war," Rachel glared at the 2wo pictures taped to the one she'd hung earlier that day. The first shot read, "There's a reason people believe in Angels..." and the second, more incriminating, "But it ain't because of us!"   
"I think I have an idea..." Tobias slowly smiled, his evil side showing itself for the first time.  
  
*  
  
Jake leaned over a map with Toby at his side, sleepily discussing a protective wall around the valley. He rubbed his eyes and cracked his back and looked up at the wall. A photo of himself and Marco clad in only Digimon boxers and knocking each other silly with pillows (with a caption that read, "Now we know why they keep telling us the TV is 'broken' Saturday mornings") was tacked next to 3hree others, none of which your average portrait.   
"What the-"   
  
*  
  
The next day, Jake sneaked his way into the cabin, picture in hand. He forced a thumbtack through its glossy surface and rammed it into the wall.   
"That oughta do it..." He thought as he admired his work: A not-so-flattering picture of Rachel and Cassie *trying* to barbeque and failing miserably. The expressions needed no comments, and Rachel struggling to figure out how you get coal briquettes to work was priceless.  
  
*  
  
Cassie was busy re-stocking the little green-and-white cooler in the cabin when she noticed the picture war. Marco looking immature, embarrassing shots of Rachel and Tobias, Jake and Marco exposing their Digimon fetish, and finally herself and Rachel looking very, VERY ridiculous. Well, she could play this game, too, and it looked like Marco would be the one to feel her wrath.  
After lurking around, she finally captured a shot of Marco deeply reading a Woman's Day magazine and another where he was cutting out an article and tacked them to the cabin wall with the words, "So THAT'S where he learned to dress so well..."  
  
*  
  
"Okay, this...this...this...has got to stop!" Jake tried hard to keep from laughing as he gestured towards the cabin wall, now nearly a quarter covered in humiliating pictures, the worst of which taken by Rachel and Marco.  
Even though Jake struggled to keep a straight face, the rest of the Animorphs didn't bother. They were all crowded into the cabin, after summoned by Jake.   
"I mean it!" he said, biting his lip to keep from smiling, "what if somebody comes in here? Think about it, what would your parents say if they saw some of these? Is this earning us any respect?" He motioned towards pictures of himself, "Besides, we have too much work to do to be sneaking around each other taking pictures!"  
"I agreed with you until you said that, "Rachel protested, "You we haven't let this disrupt our work. Most of these were taken at night, anyway...and you know what, I think our parents would appreciate these, to let them know we're not total war freaks, to let them know some part of our old lives still exist."  
"So, tell me now, is this going to comfort anyone in your family?" Jake said, smiling, and pointed to the third picture on the wall.   
Both she and Tobias blushed furiously, and she shook her head, "I guess not, but, hey, it was a theory," she shrugged, her face still red.  
"How about we stop taking pictures for a while, but just leave these up? I mean, you've got to admit some of them are classics!"   
"No, Marco, if we leave them up, we're just inviting somebody to look at them. It will make things much harder for us to keep control with this kind of stuff against us. Pretend you're mature for a second and tell me if you would listen to a guy who wears Digimon boxers?"  
"We have to at least stick them in an album, though." Cassie said, wiping a tear from her cheek.   
"I can live with that."  
"Sure."  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: As you can see, this was a hasty attempt, but I really wanted it up. Maybe I'll clean it later. Anyway, this is PART 1NE. Be on the lookout for more insanity.  
  
  
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I own Digimon, but not Animorphs.   
  
REMEMBER: If I made your day with this fic, the least you can do is make mine with a review. If you're not an author, you can't imagine the fun it is to read those :) 


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